Oklahoma City Metro Area Tornadoes

As you all probably know, a huge tornado in the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City this afternoon. For now it’s been rated at least EF-4. Town names like Newcastle and Moore probably sound familiar to you if you follow weather. That’s because a deadly F-5 tore through the same towns 14 years ago this month…May 3, 1999.

How do the paths compare? I found this image online, but can’t find the source of the info. I’m not a journalist, just a meteorologist, so I can get by with passing the info on to you as well without checking it’s source. Looks pretty close to reality though:

Notice there is one neighborhood that appears to have been hit by both powerful tornadoes…the chance of that happening anywhere on this planet is VERY low.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 20th, 2013 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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22 Responses to Oklahoma City Metro Area Tornadoes

In Oregon, all new construction has to meet seismic and certain wind shear codes. You’d think that in Tornado Alley, since you can’t effectively build for tornado strength winds, at the very least, all new construction would require a storm shelter/cellar.

The tornado was upped to an EF-5. Thankfully the death toll was revised down, for now.

SURVEY SUMMARY: EXPERTS SURVEYING IN MOORE HAVE DETERMINED DAMAGE IS
EF5 WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OVER 200 MPH. FOUR SURVEY TEAMS CONTINUE TO
INSPECT DAMAGE FROM THIS LONG TRACK TORNADO. INITIAL DAMAGE WAS
FOUND AROUND 4.4 MILES WEST OF NEWCASTLE…SOUTH OF TECUMSEH ROAD
ALSO KNOWN AS NW 16TH STREET AND EAST LAKE ROAD. THE TORNADO TRACKED
NE TO THE INTERSTATE 44 BRIDGE OVER THE CANADIAN RIVER AND THEN TOOK
A MORE EASTWARD TRACK THROUGH MOORE. TORNADO DAMAGE ABRUPTLY ENDS
0.3 MILES EAST OF AIR DEPOT ROAD AND N OF SE 134TH ST.

INITIALLY PRODUCING EF0 AND EF1 DAMAGE THE STORM INTENSIFIED VERY
RAPIDLY IN 4 MILES OR AROUND 10 MINUTES PRODUCING EF4 DAMAGE BEFORE
REACHING INTERSTATE 44. NUMEROUS INDICATIONS OF EF4 DAMAGE WITH SOME
AREAS NOW DETERMINED AT EF5 DAMAGE…THE HIGHEST CATEGORY ON THE EF
SCALE…WITH OVER 200 MPH WINDS.

Oklahoma twister tracked path of 1999 tornado
By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer Published: May 20, 2013 at 4:39 PM PDT Last Updated: May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM PDT
The National Weather Service estimated that the storm that struck Moore, Okla., on Monday had wind speeds of up to 200 mph, and was at least a half-mile wide. The 1999 storm had winds clocked at 300 mph, according to the weather service website, and it destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 homes, killing at least two people.

Kelsey Angle, a weather service meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said it’s unusual for two such powerful tornadoes to track roughly the same path. The 1999 twister was part of a two-day outbreak sweeping mostly across central Oklahoma – similar to the past two days.

The weather service has tentatively classified the Moore twister’s wind speeds as an EF4 on a 5-point scale. Angle said less than 1 percent of all tornadoes reach EF4 or EF5.

The thunderstorm developed in an area where warm moist air rose into cooler air. Winds in the area caused the storm to rotate, and that rotation promoted the development of a tornado. The most destructive and deadly tornadoes develop from rotating thunderstorms.

The biggest known tornado was nearly 2 1/2 miles wide at its peak width, which the weather service describes as near the maximum size for a tornado. It struck Hallam, Neb., in May 2004.

The deadliest tornado, which struck March 18, 1925, killed 695 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

Deaths from twisters have been declining in recent years because of improved forecasts and increased awareness by people living in tornado-prone areas, especially in smaller and rural communities.

Sadly, it’s not the first time Moore has had to deal with such a catastrophic storm. On May 3, 1999, Moore was struck by an EF-5 tornado which recorded the strongest wind speed ever registered near Earth’s surface.

MARK’S TWITTER FEED

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